MASTER I LITERATURE Mrs.

LAOUFI

History of Drama

Actually, drama, as in plays and the theatre, has changed over time. The word itself comes
from the Greek word meaning 'action,' and it's with the Greeks and Romans that we start to
define classical drama. In fact, classical drama was more than just acting out a story. These
plays were highly symbolic and included music, dance, poetry and audience participation.

As Christianity spread, theatre took a religious turn, which opened the door to the morality
plays of the Medieval Period. In Europe, during the 15th and 16th centuries, morality plays,
which featured a hero who must overcome evil, were allegorical in nature.

An allegory is a literary device where characters or events represent or symbolize other ideas
and concepts. In the case of the morality plays, the hero represented mankind. The other
characters served as personifications of many things, including the seven deadly sins, death,
virtues and even angels and demons - anything that wanted to take over mankind's soul. In
fact, this theme has transcended through many dramatic periods. Also, the fact that these plays
were performed by professional actors makes them a transition between the classical drama
and the plays we see today.

Of course, today we have drama popping up all over the place. There is drama for what we
call the theatre, both the stage and at the movies. Staged theatre is acted out live in front of an
audience. The movie theatre is a different story. This is drama that has been acted out to
perfection and is presented as a recording to a live audience. The same goes for television, but
on a smaller screen.

Radio is a bit different, however. Most of us don't listen to many radio dramas, but if we did,
we would know the actors are using their voices and probably some sound effects. Sometimes
we see these elements within audio books. In the case of the Harry Potter series, the narrator,
Jim Dale, goes to great lengths to create different voices for each of the characters, as if there
were many actors playing the different parts. While we might not actually see the actors
acting, we do see them in our mind's eye, and we use our imagination to play out the story
that we hear.

Today's theatre is a mix of many styles that have been popular for hundreds of years. In this
lesson, learn how each time period contributed to what we now see during a live, dramatic
performance.
MASTER I LITERATURE Mrs.LAOUFI

Introduction to Theatre

When you're analyzing or interpreting a piece of literature, it's useful to know something
about the time period during which the work was written. This information can help you
identify patterns, anticipate forms and predict themes. Looking at drama is no different. If you
know a little bit about the history of the theatre, you will have a better chance of
understanding the context of a play before you even begin reading it.

Primitive Theatre

Since this is a brief history of drama, you're probably subconsciously asking yourself, 'When
did people begin acting out plays?' Well, I hate to tell you, but I don't know. Actually, no one
knows for sure. What we do know is that all drama is simply an imitation of actions or ideas,
so many theories suggest that the first dramatic stories were probably told by primitive tribes
who would return from the hunt and reenact the events for the rest of the tribe.

Over time, it may have become a ritual, and the performance might have taken place before
the hunt. Like most rituals, the shaman, the religious leader of the tribe, would have
eventually overseen it, and it would have become a sort of religious or spiritual celebration.
This could have set the stage for theatre for the next several hundred years.

Greek Theatre

And while we aren't quite sure where or how it all began, we do know that
the Greeks embraced theatre as a means to worship their mythical gods. In doing this, they
transformed drama from a ritual into sort of a ritual-drama and held festivals in honor of the
Greek god of wine and fertility, Dionysus. Think of this sort of like spring break in Miami -
everyone gets together in the spring, drinks a lot, dresses up, celebrates fertility and then has a
three-day contest in which three playwrights would compete. Okay, that last part doesn't quite
fit, but you do have excessive amounts of drunk, over-sexed people spending three days
watching plays - it's bound to get a little bit rowdy.

These early plays were performed by a group of men and boys called a chorus. The chorus
worked as a group to provide commentary on the action of the story. But even with the
introduction of individual actors, the chorus still remained in the background, acting as
narrators providing insight to the action on stage and the characters' thoughts.
MASTER I LITERATURE Mrs.LAOUFI

In fact, there were very few people on stage in general, which meant that everyone had to play
multiple parts. The drama masks that so many of us associate with theatre were used for
exactly this purpose. The smiling comedy mask and the frowning tragedy mask were visual
representations of Greek muses and were used to enhance the songs and actions on stage.

With this development of drama, it's no surprise that many famous plays came from this time
period. Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides are all well-known playwrights from this time,
though it is believed that many of their works were never recovered.

The Middle Ages

Theatre continued to be popular through the fall of the Roman Empire. With the onset of
the Middle Ages from 500-1500 A.D., however, the Church had different views of the
mythological gods and saw theatre as evil. Most theatre was outlawed, and drama was only
performed by traveling groups of actors.

Eventually, though, the Church saw the value of the ritualistic nature of drama, and began to
reenact short Bible stories during mass. Mystery plays were stories from the Bible. Miracle
plays focused on saints. Over time, these plays transformed into something known as morality
plays. These plays promoted a godly life, but they did not teach the Bible stories exclusively.
Instead, the morality plays worked as an allegory, which is a literary device where the
characters or events represent or symbolize other ideas and concepts.

Morality plays, which featured a hero who must overcome evil, were allegorical in nature. In
the case of the morality plays, the hero represented mankind. The other characters served as
personifications of many things, including the Seven Deadly Sins, death, virtues and even
angels and demons - anything that wanted to take over mankind's soul. In the end, the hero
would choose the godly route.

An example of a 15th century English morality play is Everyman. In the play, God sends
Death to strike down the sinners who have forgotten him. Death finds the main character,
Everyman, and tells him he is to begin his journey from life to death. Everyman asks if he can
bring someone with him, and Death agrees. Unfortunately, Everyman cannot persuade any of
his friends, who include Fellowship, Beauty, Kindred, Worldly Goods, to go with him on his
journey. Finally, Good Deeds says that she will go with him. Together they go into the grave
and ascend into heaven. The moral of this story is that good deeds will help every man get
MASTER I LITERATURE Mrs.LAOUFI

into heaven. It is a subtle turn from the straight biblical stories, but it allowed for more secular
forms of drama during the Renaissance.

The Renaissance

You might already know the word Renaissance means 'rebirth'. In the case of drama, the
Renaissance, which lasted from approximately 1400-1700, was the rebirth of interest in
theatre across Europe. In fact, the Renaissance introduced many of the elements we still think
of when we imagine a theatre: indoor theatres, an arched stage, a curtain dropped between
scenes, more elaborate set design. All of these changes were implemented during the
Renaissance. More importantly, however, the purpose of drama transitioned from stories told
by the Church to stories made primarily for entertainment for both royalty and commoners.

Usually when we hear the word Renaissance, especially in conjunction with drama, we think
of Shakespeare's England. What most people don't know is the Renaissance actually began in
Italy, where music, song and dance were implemented into the plays produced in the new
indoor theatres. From there, the rebirth of the arts moved to other countries in Europe. The
French imitated Italian theatre and boasted the talent of playwright Molière, whose plays
poked fun at the people in important positions.

In Spain, they kept some of the religious dramas, but also began performing action-based
plays. It wasn't until later that the Renaissance was embraced in England during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth I and continued through the reign of King James I and King Charles I.
Theatre flourished during this time, producing several great playwrights. These
included Christopher Marlowe, who was known for writing tragedies, and Ben Jonson, who
was known for writing comedies. Of course, most well known of all was William
Shakespeare, who wrote both and is still popular today.

Have you ever wondered how actors in a play can convey a story without the audience
reading the script? Watch and learn how playwrights use dramatic elements to tell a story on
the stage.